Culture is an anthropological term that refers to the shared values, beliefs and norms about key priorities and ways of undertaking particular tasks, or relating to colleagues among members of a particular organization (Knights and Willmott, 2012). Organisational culture is often described as the unwritten rules which govern our behaviour in the workplace and the feel of an organisation.
Dr Kathy Milhauser provides a short summary to organisational culture:
The above video clip introduces Schein's three levels of culture model:
Harrison's four culture types
Another framework of organizational culture types, based on the earlier work of Harrison (1972), is offered by Handy (1993) which describes the following four manifestations of culture. (Martin, J and Fellenz, M, 2010)
Power culture - typically found in small organizations, everything revolves around the focal person(s). All important decisions are made by them and they retain absolute authority in all matters. The success of power depends on the capabilities of the focal person in technical, business and management terms. See Leadership.
Role culture - this type of culture is based firmly on the existence of procedure and rule frameworks. The hierarchy and bureaucracy dominate this type of organization, with instructions coming down the organization and information going back up to the senior levels.
Task culture - the expertise within this type of organization is vested in the individuals within it and it is they who must be organized in a way that meets the needs of the business. The description used by Handy to illustrate this culture is that of a net. This type of culture is supportive of a team organization. See Teamwork. Decision making is frequently distributed throughout the 'net' dependent on the needs of the task. See Decision-making. Organizations involved in project-based operations such as consultancy and civil engineering might be expected to adopt this cultural framework.
Person culture - this is based upon the individual and should not be confused with the power culture. The power culture is based around a single focal point. The person culture allows each person to be a focal point depending on the circumstances. A consultancy practice and barristers' chambers are used by Handy to illustrate this type of culture.
Cultural web
Johnson and Scholes (1988) identified six interrelated elements that influence organizational culture. This is known as the 'cultural web'. The six elements are:
Stories
Rituals and Routines
Symbols
Organizational Structure
Control Systems
Power Structures
MindTools describes the cultural web and provides you with questions for each element of the model in order for you to analyse your own organizational culture: Aligning your Organizations's Culture with Strategy
As you can see there are many different elements to analysing organisational culture. What is your culture like at work? Is it a sales culture, learning culture, customer-focused culture or a safety culture? Share your work experiences here.
Hofstede (1990) also links organisational and national culture by implying that the preferred ways of managing and organizing in a specific context will be based upon the national tendencies. This will be more prominent in a large organisation operating in several countries. Do you work for an organisation where there are differences in culture between countries or geographical regions? Have you come across a culture shock? What was your response and how did you adapt? We would love to hear your experiences of culture within your past and present organisations.
Personality
Personality concerns consistent patterns of behavior, cognition, and emotion in individuals. The study of personality in organizations has usually focused on the relation of specific traits to employee performance. There has been a particular focus on the Big Five personality traits (O-C-E-A-N), which refers to five overarching personality traits and described as follows. (Migliore, 2011)
Openness - Intellectually curious, open to new ideas, involves imaginative and creative cognition style
Conscientiousness - Individuals control, regulate, and direct their impulses, as related to decision-making and action-oriented behaviors.
Extraversion - Assertive, action oriented, and typifies individuals who enjoy opportunities for excitement, attention drawing, and talking
Agreeableness - Concern for cooperation and social harmony, and behaviour characteristics include being considerate, friendly, generous, helpful, and willing to compromise one’s own interests for others.
Neuroticism - Excessive worry that causes mental distress, emotional suffering, and an inability to cope with day-to-day life activities.
Study revealed that personality trait are open system that can be influenced by environment at any age. Typically the influencing factors are genetic (nature) and environmental influence (nurture).
How does your personality shape your life? Can it dictate whether you are in the right job, make or break your relationship, influence your health and even how long you'll live? The BBC Child of Our Time will tell you more!The Big Personality Test (Episode)
Do you know conscientiousness that the personality trait that more often predicts success Business Insider (2014)and few personality traits that call “dark triad”: Manipulatives, Narcissism and antisocial personality which are well-known for the bad behavior that can caused when dominant in people’s personalities and help people rise through the ranks?The Wall Street Journal (2014)
Cross-cultural researchers also have shown the difference in big five personality trait across cultures and nation. These offering insight toward leadership characteristic and certain occupational-job categories. For example, as per figure 1, the work related value for employee from Oceania is high likely to be extraversion and Individualism. Figure 1:
Personality Figure 1.png
As noted by Knight and Willmott 2012, “the successful selection and deployment of staff to post in organization depends upon the correct identification of personality “. Since personality has direct impact in work organization, we need to carefully evaluate and study people behavior in order to build successful teams by mix of difference personality types.
References:
Laura Ann Migliore, (2011),"Relation between big five personality traits and Hofstede's cultural dimensions", Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, Vol. 18 Iss 1 pp. 38 – 54
David P. Schmitt, Jüri Allik, Robert R. McCrae and Verónica Benet-Martínez (2007),The Geographic Distribution of Big Five Personality Traits : Patterns and Profiles of Human Self-Description Across 56 Nations, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, pp.38-173
Knights, D. and Willmott, L. (2012), ‘Culture' and 'Globalization and Organisations’, Introducing Organisational Behaviour & Management, 2nd edition, Cengage Learning EMEA. ISBN: 978-1-4080-3018-9
Martin, J. and Fellenz, M. (2010), 'Organizational Culture', Organisational Behaviour and Management, 4th edition, Cengage Learning EMEA. ISBN: 978-1-4080-1812-5
Organisational Culture
Culture is an anthropological term that refers to the shared values, beliefs and norms about key priorities and ways of undertaking particular tasks, or relating to colleagues among members of a particular organization (Knights and Willmott, 2012). Organisational culture is often described as the unwritten rules which govern our behaviour in the workplace and the feel of an organisation.
Dr Kathy Milhauser provides a short summary to organisational culture:
The above video clip introduces Schein's three levels of culture model:
Harrison's four culture types
Another framework of organizational culture types, based on the earlier work of Harrison (1972), is offered by Handy (1993) which describes the following four manifestations of culture. (Martin, J and Fellenz, M, 2010)
Power culture - typically found in small organizations, everything revolves around the focal person(s). All important decisions are made by them and they retain absolute authority in all matters. The success of power depends on the capabilities of the focal person in technical, business and management terms. See Leadership.
Role culture - this type of culture is based firmly on the existence of procedure and rule frameworks. The hierarchy and bureaucracy dominate this type of organization, with instructions coming down the organization and information going back up to the senior levels.
Task culture - the expertise within this type of organization is vested in the individuals within it and it is they who must be organized in a way that meets the needs of the business. The description used by Handy to illustrate this culture is that of a net. This type of culture is supportive of a team organization. See Teamwork. Decision making is frequently distributed throughout the 'net' dependent on the needs of the task. See Decision-making. Organizations involved in project-based operations such as consultancy and civil engineering might be expected to adopt this cultural framework.
Person culture - this is based upon the individual and should not be confused with the power culture. The power culture is based around a single focal point. The person culture allows each person to be a focal point depending on the circumstances. A consultancy practice and barristers' chambers are used by Handy to illustrate this type of culture.
Cultural web
Johnson and Scholes (1988) identified six interrelated elements that influence organizational culture. This is known as the 'cultural web'. The six elements are:
Stories
Rituals and Routines
Symbols
Organizational Structure
Control Systems
Power Structures
MindTools describes the cultural web and provides you with questions for each element of the model in order for you to analyse your own organizational culture: Aligning your Organizations's Culture with Strategy
As you can see there are many different elements to analysing organisational culture. What is your culture like at work? Is it a sales culture, learning culture, customer-focused culture or a safety culture? Share your work experiences here.
Hofstede (1990) also links organisational and national culture by implying that the preferred ways of managing and organizing in a specific context will be based upon the national tendencies. This will be more prominent in a large organisation operating in several countries. Do you work for an organisation where there are differences in culture between countries or geographical regions? Have you come across a culture shock? What was your response and how did you adapt? We would love to hear your experiences of culture within your past and present organisations.
Personality
Personality concerns consistent patterns of behavior, cognition, and emotion in individuals. The study of personality in organizations has usually focused on the relation of specific traits to employee performance. There has been a particular focus on the Big Five personality traits (O-C-E-A-N), which refers to five overarching personality traits and described as follows. (Migliore, 2011)Study revealed that personality trait are open system that can be influenced by environment at any age. Typically the influencing factors are genetic (nature) and environmental influence (nurture).
How does your personality shape your life? Can it dictate whether you are in the right job, make or break your relationship, influence your health and even how long you'll live? The BBC Child of Our Time will tell you more!The Big Personality Test (Episode)
Do you know conscientiousness that the personality trait that more often predicts success Business Insider (2014)and few personality traits that call “dark triad”: Manipulatives, Narcissism and antisocial personality which are well-known for the bad behavior that can caused when dominant in people’s personalities and help people rise through the ranks?The Wall Street Journal (2014)
Cross-cultural researchers also have shown the difference in big five personality trait across cultures and nation. These offering insight toward leadership characteristic and certain occupational-job categories. For example, as per figure 1, the work related value for employee from Oceania is high likely to be extraversion and Individualism.
Figure 1:
As noted by Knight and Willmott 2012, “the successful selection and deployment of staff to post in organization depends upon the correct identification of personality “. Since personality has direct impact in work organization, we need to carefully evaluate and study people behavior in order to build successful teams by mix of difference personality types.
References:
MindTools - The Cultural Web: Aligning your Organizational Culture with Strategy. Retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_90.htm . (Accessed on 01 Dec 2014)